Two Minutes…

So having been designated the 0gden Scholar (which turns out to be a bigger deal than I originally thought), and with being one of two Mennonite sisters who were both graduating at the same time and "with honors," Sharon and I were catapulted into the media spotlight briefly. They say you get fifteen minutes of fame, and then it's over. I think "two minutes of fame" would be a little more accurate in our case.

At any rate, it started with being contacted by A.B., who wanted to do a story on us for a television segment called "View from the Hill." Someone told me later that they like to have a big graduation story for every graduation, and this time, Sharon and I were The Big Story. We weren't all that excited about it, but we agreed to do an interview for the two-minute spot. Let's just say we did NOT enjoy that process at all. It was so difficult to give an answer that we felt good about while knowing that it could be twisted into something else entirely. This was complicated by not knowing ahead of time what questions were going to be asked. The first question was "Tell us about your community." Well, that was nice and general, wasn't it? You could go a thousand different directions with that.

At the same time the television interview was being conducted, the one in charge of media relations for the university was taking notes for the purposes of writing a press release which would then be released to the newspapers. They also had a photographer in the room who was taking many, many pictures. Needless to say, we decided we were not meant for the camera.

The media relations person sent us a rough draft of his piece ahead of time, and we took the liberty of making corrections. And he was fine with us making corrections, which we appreciated so much. In the end, we liked his article much better than any other thing that was put out there. What happens is that the University sends out their article in the form of a press release, which other newspapers can then take and publish as their own story. A reprint was not good enough for the BG paper, however, and they wanted to write their own story. So we had a late night interview with one of their reporters. Unlike the university, we were not given a chance to edit it, which resulted in a poorly written, inaccurate article. We absolutely hated it. The other smaller newspapers stuck with the university version, for which we were very grateful.

When we were contacted by the university's radio station for an interview, we were beginning to feel harassed. We were much bolder by this time, however, and told her that the only way we would consider it is if she sent us the questions ahead of time. She mostly stuck to the questions, although she did throw some curves into it. I haven't had the nerve to listen to the interview yet, but Sharon did, and we were both very upset to find that the intro she stuck in there when the piece was edited was her own version of what she had wanted us to say (and didn't). I had also sent her some corrections after the interview and asked her not to include certain questions, and according to Sharon, she did anyway. We were SO NOT HAPPY! They say don't believe everything the media throws at you, and we are here to tell you that that is true.

We have decided that there is the Real Truth and then there is the Censored Truth. And what makes these interviews so difficult is that you have to give the Censored Truth on the fly. What do I mean by that? Well, for example, one question they repeatedly ask is if we have experienced any rejection from our community because of attending college. Or alternatively, have we received support from our community, and if so, how? Well, the Censored Truth is that no, we have not been "rejected," per se, and our community has supported us as best as they know how. Any conservative Mennonite who has been in college would probably know all too well that the Real Truth is slightly different.

We knew the story had hit the newspapers when Sharon and I went to the dry cleaners early one morning, and the dry cleaning lady told us how much she had enjoyed reading our article. We were a little startled, but it was the first of many such comments from people we met in passing. For example:

• We met one teenager in Nashville who came up to us and asked us if we were from Franklin (turns out, she was too and had seen the article). When we confirmed that yes, we were, in fact, the subjects of the article, she was sooo pleased and just beamed.
  
• The night before graduation, Sharon had run into Wal-Mart for a couple items. A lady approached her and said, "I know you're going to think I'm crazy, but are you one of the ladies graduating tomorrow?" Sharon said yes, and she next asked if she was the one going for accounting. Sharon thought it was kind of creepy to have some random unknown person know that much about you.
  
• One day at school, Sharon was getting off the elevator, and an elderly gentleman that she had run into numerous times over the past four years stopped her and said, "I read about you in the paper. You're a Starrr!"
  
• When Sharon's friends, Ryan and Jenna, heard about the upcoming TV spot, they both declared they were going to call all their friends and relatives to watch it. Jenna said that she was going to call the TV station and ask for a copy of the segment and tell them, "Those are my friends!"
  
• Dr. W1 announced to the entire class that we were going to be on TV and that they should go home and watch it.
  
• I told Dr. W2—who had written one of my letters of recommendation for me—about having gotten the award. He said he was going to put it in the departmental newsletter. I said that I didn't think it was necessary, but he said, "No, no. You don't understand. It's not about you. It's about a student of MINE getting the award. I now have bragging rights!"
  
• When Sharon and I were standing in line in the bookstore on campus, one of the cashiers called out, "Are you sisters? I read about you in the paper."
  

So here are some of the headlines:

• WKU: "Sisters from Mennonite Community Among WKU's Top Scholars"
  
• Bowling Green: "Value of Education Goes Far for Graduating Sisters"
  
• Franklin: "Two Mennonite Sisters to get Honors Degrees"
  
• Russellville: "Schmuckers to be Honored at WKU"
  
• Franklin (post graduation): "Schmuckers Receive Honors at WKU's Commencement"
  

Here is the link for the television interview: http://www.wku.edu/news/releases08/december/scholars.html

And the flurry of good wishes flowing in from the public was astonishing… we feel blessed to have been shown such support. I'd like to share some of those:

From Classmates:

• Hi Kris, All I can say is CONGRATULATIONS! I went to [Western's] website and read an article about you and your sister. What an accomplishment! ~W.L.
  
• Congratulations. You've both done a really good job. ~B.W.
  
• Congratulations on your honor and achievements. Good luck in your MPH courses. ~W.H.
  
• Kris, I read this article about you and your sister today! I used to see a lady on campus and she looked very much like you, but I just thought it was a coincidence!! I now know that it was your sister Sharon. Congratulations on your accomplishments! You are very knowledgeable about health care and I know you will succeed at everything you put your mind to! I've enjoyed getting to know you and I look forward to keeping in touch, beyond our days at WKU!...see you tonight for our final! Good Luck! ~T.C.
  
• I am so happy that both of you have done so well and are graduating with honors. That is so great! I really liked learning more about your family and your travels tonight on the news. I had no idea. How fun to have such a supportive family. I am proud to have known you both and am really happy about your success!! ~E.S.
  
• Sharon, I just wanted to congratulate you on graduating. It is a great feeling. ~C.S.
  
• I finished reading the article on WKU's website after we got off the phone. I thought it was great and you and Kris should both be very proud of yourselves. Don't be embarrassed. You can't help it that you're geniuses. :) ~R.B.
  

From Professors:

• Wonderful radio interviews. Now you are REAL celebrities. It was...no IS my pleasure to know you and Sharon. You are fantastically gifted young ladies, who will make an enormous impact on everyone you touch and everything you do. If I can assist you in any way in your future success, PLEASE DO NOT hesitate to call. ~H.L.
  
• Dear Kris and Sharon, Congratulations to both of you on your academic achievements. It was wonderful to see you today. I have now caught up on the news a bit: seen the Daily News story, read the WKU news story, and seen the video spot on the WKU web site. Your comments indicate a tremendous amount of discipline and character. It was so nice of you to mention how much the trip to Germany in 2006 meant to you. I'm going to forward the links to Markus. I am sure he will be excited to see them. ~L.M.
  
• I saw you at the WKU graduation and was so very pleased that you were recognized a WKU outstanding scholar!!!! I am proud of you and wish you the very best. I would like to talk with you sometime […]. Hope all is well. Again, congratulations. ~S.J.
  
• Sharon, Congratulations! I just learned you were named one of the two Scholars for the Gordon Ford College of Business for the December Commencement. ~S.W.
  
• Sharon, (You are a celebrity!) Not only do you have a 4.00 GPA, had a perfect performance in my class, but you also made the news. Congratulations! I read the story about you and Kris. I am sure you will ace your CPA exam. Just study for it! ~G.K.
  
• Great job, Kris! We are all so very proud of you. I plan on being there to see you get your award! Sincere best wishes always. ~C.W.
  

From my friends at CHC/Medical Center:

• You didn't tell me about this! I am very proud of you and your family. ~C.S.
  
• Hey Kris!! I wanted to congratulate you on receiving the Ogden Scholarship Award. That is great!! You are such a good student… Dr. W. would be so proud! :) Congratulations again!! ~S.W.
  
• Hey Kris, Congratulations on the 0gden Scholarship award. What an accomplishment! I know your parents are extremely proud of both you and Sharon. I read the article in the newspaper – it was really good. Both you and Sharon are inspirations proving you can do anything with confidence and support. But what really is important is your devotion in using your education to help your Church family. We should all strive for that kind of profession. Way to go! I hope everything is going well with your graduate studies. Hang in there because I know your hard work is going to pay off. Take care and keep in touch. ~M.C.
  
• Congratulations, Graduate!!! What an honor!!! C.S. shared with me about your Ogden Scholarship Award. Way to Go!!!! Good luck with your future endeavors. ~C.P.
  
• Congratulations on your upcoming graduation. We wish you all the best. ~V.T.
  
• Congratulations on being awarded the 0gden Scholarship! I am very happy for you, and you must be ecstatic. This award does not come as a surprise to me since I've had the pleasure to get to work and know you. I have seen firsthand what you are capable of and the intelligence you possess. Again, congratulations and best wishes! ~R.M.
  
• WAY TO GO KRIS!!!!! I AM SO HAPPY AND SO VERY PROUD OF YOU!!!!!! CONGRATS!!!!!!! ~T.S.
  

From Acquaintances:

• My mother-in-law from Franklin called me and told me about the news regarding your graduation from college! Just wanted to say congratulations..that is a wonderful achievement!!! ~M.D.
  
• Dear Sara, I was on my way to Florida and PBS-WESTERN had an interview with your sisters! It was such a good interview. I could just picture them as they were talking. Then Meg e-mailed me that they were on TV. And tonight there was a BIG article in the Glasgow Daily Times about them with their pictures! They are celebrities. You must be very proud of them as I am sure they are of you. It's absolutely amazing what you three did with that 8th grade education you had. I couldn't be more proud of you if you were my own family. When you talk with them, please tell them I said "congratulations on the good work" and keep on going! ~J.E. {former USPS coworker}
  
• Hi Kris and Sharon, I was so surprised to see you both in the newspaper and on TV! Congratulations on your accomplishments. Aren't you glad you didn't make the USPS a career! ~J.W. {former USPS coworker}
  
• What celebrities you are! TV & newspaper write ups—just wonderful! We are so very proud of you and your accomplishments and all that you stand for. I'm so glad that I had the chance, through Mother and Daddy, to get to know you! God bless you wherever your paths may lead! ~G.P
  
• We wanted to say congratulations for all your accomplishments. What a very special lady you are and how proud your parents must be! Way to go! Congrats to your sister as well! Best of luck and good wishes! ~J.T.
  
• Congratulations on your graduation. I saw the news article that was written about you and kris . God bless you as you use your schooling for His glory! ~S.S.
  
• Sharon, I am so proud of you! I knew you would go to school someday. I am excited for your sister as well. I know you don't like publicity, but you never know who is watching and can offer you a job. I have thought about you several times and wondered what you were doing. Once again, I am very proud of you!!! ~S.T.
  
  

From Family:

• yayyyyyy, Kris, you're awesome! Go for global engagement!!!! ~Andrew
  
• I'm proud of you for doing it, but just let me say, I would NOT have done it! Whatever did you answer for the civic question? That gives me the chills and I don't even have to answer it. ~Sara
  
• I'm afraid if they had asked me the civic engagement question I would have said, "can you define civic engagement for me, please?" And I'm quite proud of her. I think it will be fantastic to have her speak at my commencement! ~Sharon
  
• Congratulations! I am so incredibly proud of you! And I am so disappointed that I won't be able to be there. Please, please have someone make a video so I can at least see belatedly. There was no doubt in my mind that you would be the winner. They had no other choice! You just bowled them over with your knowledge, you grace under pressure, and your charm. I wish I could have been there to see the interview! ~Uncle Joe
  
• Congratulations! I am also quite proud of you and I know you can make that speech! If you can face that sea of stern faces and answer their questions (and win), then you can speak to a friendly crowd and tell them what you want to. ~Mom
  
• Congratulations on such a prestigious honor and a load of cash. ~Martha
  
• We're thrilled and proud of you! Lyle says, "Many happy returns of the day!" I assume that doesn't mean the interview, but rather the day you get the scholarship check. ~Maria
  
• I am SOOO excited! ~Jolene
  
• Wow... wowwwwww. ~Louisa
  
• First off,Kudos to you Kris ! I am awed that there is such intelligence within our family. Do you think some of it might rub off if I touched you? Smile. And yes, I know that you can give out a few words of wisdom at commencement. Just imagine that you're on your soap box and you're expounding to
  a bunch of your best friends. YOU CAN DO IT !!!! ~Aunt Ida
  
• Kris- Congratulations on your honors. ~Nora
  
• Congratulations to you and Sharon! Don't worry Kris, fame typically lasts 15 minutes! It was a great article. ~Annie
  
• This is a small note to congratulate each on your wonderful and outstanding accomplishment. Jay and I hope and pray that you are very proud of yourselves. The fruits of your hard-work and determination are finally here. We wish each much success and the very best now and always. It is time for celebration and party!!!!! Congratulations once again! ~Liz

A Whiner's Dungeon

"I wish we had a Whiner's Dungeon," Sharon said.

"A what?" I asked.

"A Whiner's Dungeon--so we could throw them in it."

Puppies seemingly do not like Finals Week!!

And I don't care for it so much myself.

Extenuating Circumstances

So Monday and Wednesday (today) were the days this week designated for our German presentations—5 minute presentations to be done in German. How bad can that be, right? Well, believe me, it was rough enough. I can pronounce German words all day long, but to compose the words in the correct order is another thing entirely—especially when the presentation is on a topic other than your name, your favorite color, your favorite foods, etc. So in my usual fashion, I decided to get it over and done with and made sure I did mine on Monday. It went well enough—another thing checked off my List of Things to Do before the semester can end. Of course, we didn’t have enough time for everyone to present on Monday, and so the rest were pushed to today.

So we proceeded with The Plan again today. The class runs from 10:20 – 11:15. At 10:45, in between presentations, someone commented on the fact that “Derek” was not in class. Odd—because he was scheduled to present. Speaking in his defense, Caleb assured Prof. S. that Derek must surely have some extenuating circumstances going on. Why else would he be missing class on such an important day?

At 10:46, the door literally burst open. And there was Derek. He was totally colorless, gasping for breath, and gulping big slugs of water from his water bottle.

“Speaking of the devil!” said Prof. S.

“I overslept!” Derek gasped out, practically bent over double. He told us he had only awakened at 10:37. Oops. He must’ve had some kind of adrenaline rush because nine minutes after awakening, he was in class and “ready” to present.

“See!” Caleb said. “I told you he had some extenuating circumstances!”

Prof. S. mercifully let him sit for a spell and recover before making him do his presentation.

Derek told us which dorm he lives in, but I can’t remember which one he said. On the campus map, it’s either number 20 or number 31. The destination is number 40, but what you can’t see on the map is the Cardiac Hill that lies between buildings 32 and 40. To give you somewhat of an idea… the fourth floor of building 32 is level with the first floor of building 40. And our classroom is on the second floor of building 40.

At any rate, that was a sprint that I would dearly have LOVED to see. And I have had to chuckle about the visual several times throughout the day.

At the end of class, Derek confessed that he had not, in fact, taken the time to brush his teeth. He mumbled something about "priorities."

"The Ultimate Steal" Contest

This blog is part of the Microsoft “The Ultimate Steal” Blogging Contest. Go to www.theultimatesteal.com for details.

Academic excellence, for me, comes from a combination of using Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.

Take my German class, for example: one continuous semester-long assignment. With small assignments due nearly every day, organization is critical to excelling in this class; for this, I rely on Outlook. All assignments are entered as appointments into my calendar at the beginning of the semester. I color-code and categorize them according to assignment type. By clicking and dragging my assignments onto my task list, I can create a to-do list, which I check off as I proceed throughout the semester. The reminders feature helps me accomplish assignments on time. In lieu of the more traditional student day planner, I frequently update and print my calendar, putting it into the front of my class binders.

Word 2007 is used when completing my homework assignments. It is especially helpful in that many menus have been eliminated, and thus, I can be more efficient with my time. The Styles and Formatting options Word has made available for document formatting is invaluable in producing exceptional papers.

Excel 2007 is my best friend in this class. With all the new colors and instant formatting options available in 2007, the quality of my charts is second to none. I use the hyperlinking feature to create a master index page, which helps me navigate to other charts within that file. Excel is especially useful for things that must be memorized, and I carry my Excel charts with me to class every day.

As a very busy student, the ribbon feature in Microsoft 2007 promotes efficiency in all my tasks and helps me do more in less time. For this, I am grateful.

Dead Car

I left my car’s lights on for about five hours and had a Very Dead Car when I returned to the top level of the parking structure this afternoon. I suppose it was because I turned my lights on to go through four levels of a Very Dark garage and then burst out into the sunlight on the top level, subsequently forgetting a Small Thing like lights.

So I called my sister on her cell and beseeched her to come all the way out of her building and jump my car off—a bit of a trick when there are cars on either side of you and a concrete wall dead ahead. We linked our jumper cables together and made sure not to zap the silver mustang between our cars. It made for a Very Testy Sister who stood there holding the conjoined cables together while I cranked the errant car up. So I meekly asked for the scolding that was sure to come, to which she obliged.

Bad Kris, Bad Kris.

The Happy Report

I am SOOOOOOO happy! I took the GRE today, and I PASSED!!!! Not only did I pass, but actually had a comfortable cushion beyond the minimum requirement to be able to get into my program. [The photo details all my study aids, which is what it took to get me through this ordeal.]

As I told Mom, this is proof that miracles still happen. I cried out to the Lord many times during the course of that test today (I even begged Him to move the mouse for me at one point). Even though I put in many hours and hours of studying during the last two months, it was so disappointing to have an almost entirely new set of vocabulary words to deal with on the actual exam. And if you don’t know what a word means, you are doomed to nothing but guesses. To me, the difficulty of the test felt much worse than the simulations I had had to practice on.

I would get to a particularly troublesome problem, and despair would wash over me afresh. So then I would just arbitrarily guess something because I just couldn’t stand to spend the time looking at it anymore. I literally felt like what I imagine a [losing] Las Vegas gambler must feel like, and by the time I ended the test, three hours after it started, I really had resigned myself to having flunked it. You are allowed to cancel the entire test prior to viewing your score, but if you go ahead and view it, you have to report it, no matter what it ended up being. The girl in charge had told me to go ahead and view it, and then if I didn’t like my score, I could choose to send the scores to a school in Alaska or somewhere like that. They’ll keep the scores six months and then toss them. I thought that was pretty clever. But when I saw my score, I was so pleasantly surprised, I felt like weeping!

I was dreading the essay part as much as anything, and that’s what they make you tackle first. Before time started and the topic came on screen, I bowed my head and asked my Lord to send me a topic about which I know a little bit of something. And would you believe it?? My assigned topic was on education, which had actually been the one I was hoping for! I was thrilled! And I finished it with time to spare.

Before beginning the exam, I was given a set of sound-blocking headphones that seal off your entire ear. I thought I might as well use them, and so I did for the first little while. They were so tight, however, that I began to get a headache after a while, and they had to come off. After I took them off, I became aware of another test-taker who was just hacking and hacking and hacking. Come on! This is August—not the season for coughs! And then it began to really bug me! So I eventually put the headphones back on, but I could still hear her hacking away.

I have to wait ten to fifteen days to get my essay score, but what a relief to not have to study any more (just in time for school to start on Monday)! The kinds of math things I have had to digest in the last two months have really depressed me, and I am so thankful that I have not been called to be a mathematician. While my scores really are nothing all that noteworthy, I am going to take them and run while the gettin’s good!

One thing I have decided, however, is that it is not necessary to be so ignorant and lazy about vocabulary. I have been amazed at how many words I am familiar with, and yet, I could not tell you what they mean if asked. When I come across them while reading something, I have habitually been just breezing right by them, content with the context of the sentence. But not anymore. For as Jeffrey used to say, “I will be good!” One thing that ended up really helping me was those Wind in the Willows tapes that we used to listen to as children…to the point of near-memorization. May God bless those Brits, and may God bless my mother for exposing me to them!

GRE Attitude

I didn’t have but a couple goals for this summer. They included:
1) Take one summer class.
2) Sew enough dresses to replenish my sad wardrobe.
3) Make enough money to replenish my sad bank account.
4) Study for and take the GRE.

Goal number one was accomplished by the end of May, leaving the next three months to complete the final three goals.

I spent most of the month of June both working and sewing continuously. In addition to my work for medical aid, I have been doing telephone support for several doctor’s offices for my friend Tom. He’s been converting his clients over to Medisoft software because of the new HIPAA NPI requirements. The old software is no longer capable of meeting the standards. I went through the conversion at the doc’s a couple years ago, and I like to think that I’ve become a power user of Medisoft. I still use Medisoft on a daily basis to maintain the demographic records of medical aid, and I have also used it to track our school’s benefit auction proceeds. So Tom and I worked out a mutually beneficial arrangement.

So anyway, since January, I have been helping out my ladies-in-need at several of these doctors’ offices. I get to train them how to use the software, and when they forget, I get to train them again. Little old ladies in doctor’s offices are the epitome of Resistance when it comes to change.

So July rolls around, and as my goal had been to take the GRE at the end of July, I decided I had better get cracking at it.

“What is the GRE?” Mom asked me. The GRE stands for Graduate Record Examination, and it is a test that one has to take prior to being accepted to graduate school. Since there are no other regular classes I can take this summer, what better time to take it than now?

So I pulled out my Kaplan GRE prep book about the beginning of July, and folks… let’s just say it has been a downhill journey from there. Forget making extra money—I have had to take off no less than ten days already just to study for this thing.

“Just what makes it so hard??” Mom asked after one of my periodic groan sessions. “You’re smart!!”

Well, let me just tell you. “Smart” has nothing whatsoever to do with succeeding on the GRE (unless you’re the PhD type). The GRE is nothing more than a series of traps set purposely to try to prove that you stink at logic. I am convinced that my evasion of all things Sudoku has finally caught up with me. I have never liked puzzles as I am terrible with logic. I very much dislike applied math problems, and the quantitative section (as they call it) is pretty much one applied math problem after another. It doesn’t matter that I was the top of the class in Algebra. No. They take Algebra, and they mess it all up.

For example, consider the following problem:

Jane must select three different items for each dinner she will serve. The items are to be chosen from among 5 different vegetarian and 4 different meat selections. If at least one of the selections must be vegetarian, how many different dinners could Jane create?

Now, IF I had all the time in the world to figure it out, I suppose I could come up with the approximate answer. However, on the GRE, you have less than two minutes to come up with the correct answer. AND you are not allowed to use a calculator.

So that is just one type of horrible problem. For those of you who are interested, this particular problem is called a combination problem and is solved by using the following formula: nCk = n!/k!(n-k)!

Make sense to you? Me neither.

So every day that I spend studying for this thing, I spend half the time being inundated with fresh feelings of hopelessness.

So I went to pick my puppy up at Mom’s after spending all day at the library and as usual, I had to share my groanings with her. It just makes me feel better. I told her how half of it has to do with geometry, and I have never had a formal geometry course.

“Get Dad to teach it to you,” she said. “He knows geometry.”

“Not this kind,” I said gloomily, to which he readily agreed.

“Get Martin to teach it to you,” Colton said from his spot on the floor. “He can teach anybody how to do anything.”

I had to chuckle at that, for I do believe this would have even Martin stumped. But he would sure enough be welcome to try.

The test is made up of three basic parts: quantitative {math}, verbal {reading comprehension and vocabulary}, and analytical writing.

So I thought the reading comprehension and vocabulary would at least be a little better than the math, but not so! If you don’t know what a word means {which inevitably, you won’t}, you’re doomed. It’s nothing but guess, guess, guess. So I have been memorizing word definitions like crazy. I thought I had a pretty good vocabulary to start with, but never have I seen so many words I don’t have the first clue about! Try “sententious” or “salubrious” on for size.

There are some fill-in-the-blank questions, which are the easiest ones, in my opinion, but then there are what they call word analogies. They look like this:

FLOOD: DILUVIAL::
A. punishment : criminal
B. bacteria : biological
C. verdict : judicial
D. light : candescent
E. heart : cardiac

Reading comprehension? Surely that must be a ride in the park, beings I was brought up in a home with no television, the result of which made books my best friend. Not so!!! The things they want you to read are HORRIBLE. I can read the entire passage and not comprehend a single word of it. The one I read today was on “elementary particles.” It addressed things such as gravitation, electromagnetism, leptons, and quarks. YIKES! And the next one on Greek philosophy was not much better.

And then the essays. Dear Lord! Luckily, the GRE people post the pool of possible essays online. But do they have to pick from a pool of 250?? There is absolutely no way to prepare for them all, and so you’re just as well off preparing for none of them and instead spend all your would-be prep time praying you’ll get a topic about which you know a little bit of something. Please Lord, no political science, no nuclear power plants… *sob*

In closing, I will quote the dear Kaplan book itself:

“Those who approach the GRE as an obstacle and who rail against the necessity of taking it usually don’t fare as well as those who see the GRE as an opportunity to show off the reading and reasoning skills that graduate schools are looking for. Those who look forward to doing battle with the GRE—or, at least, who enjoy the opportunity to distinguish themselves from the rest of the applicant pack—tend to score better than do those who resent or dread it.”

And then they kindly list a few steps to take “to make sure you develop the right GRE attitude.”

Am I doomed for failure or what??

I’m pretty sure I’ve got an attitude, and I am just as sure that it isn’t “the right one.”

Philosophy

One week down—two to go. I am so ready for a BREAK. Think of the proverbial man crawling in the desert, kept going by only that distant mirage of water. Picture that, and that’s how I’m feeling. I have only this one class yet to get through and then I’m out of school for TWO MONTHS! Unfortunately, I’m afraid my promise of a break will also turn out to be a mirage. I have to take the GRE in July sometime, so although I’ll be out of school at the end of May, my life will not be study-free.

My class this time is a philosophy class. As you may have guessed, I don’t do so well with philosophy. This particular class is called “Biomedical Ethics.” I chose to take this class as a substitute for one of my required classes. The required class was called something like Human Values and something-something… so it was essentially the same thing. I didn’t want to take that one, however, primarily because the professor requires you to debate controversial issues, and I VERY much dislike things like that. Additionally, that particular professor has a knack of “inciting riots,” and students reportedly come out of there as mad as hornets. The professor in my first English class used to bring up controversial issues and then make us defend our positions. He would try to out-logic us, and I just don’t want a repeat experience.

Since this summer class can be taken as a substitute for the afore-mentioned one, I signed myself up right away and was glad to do so. According to Dr. S’s previous syllabi, he did not require debates, the main thing I was trying to avoid. So imagine my consternation when he tells us on Tuesday that he is thinking about having us break up into small groups and do debates—something he’s never done before! One of us has to present the positive side, he said, and one of us has to present the negative side, and one of us has to play the devil’s advocate. “So what do you think about that?” he asked us. I looked around the room desperately. There are only eleven of us signed up for the class. And all ten of the others sat there like bumps on a log—nonchalant, not caring.

Well, now is not the time to be bashful, I told myself. “I object!” I cried (although admittedly not in those exact words). I got my point across and gave my reasons why I so dislike group projects, and amazingly enough, he agreed that group projects probably aren’t the best. And so he would “think about it,” he said. I told him I would much rather do a research paper than to have to do the proposed project. Although he hasn’t given us our term project yet, he did confirm yesterday that he was not going to go with the group project idea. Thank God!!!

As to the content of the class… I really didn’t know that there were quite so many controversial issues in healthcare. We have spent this entire week talking about physician-assisted suicide (PAS) and euthanasia. According to Dr. S, what typically happens is that our theories adjust to our experiences. Do you agree? For example, a person who has always opposed PAS and euthanasia will perhaps change his/her position if he/she becomes a terminally ill patient in excruciating pain or sees a loved one in that position.

I much prefer to ignore the issue altogether, but I suppose having to consider both sides is good for me, and so I suppose it is good for you all too. One of the books we have to read gives an example of a man who stands to inherit a lot of money if his six year old cousin weren’t around to inherit it first. In one scenario, the man decides to kill his cousin by drowning him in the bathtub. In another scenario, the man’s cousin conveniently hits his head on his own, falls into the bathtub, and drowns as the man just stands back and watches. The end result is the same in both cases. Would you say the man’s actions (or lack thereof) in the second scenario make him just as guilty of the cousin’s death as he is in the first scenario? The authors of the book maintain that both are equally wrong. The only difference is that one is active killing and the other is passive killing.

So put it into a healthcare example; is our socially-acceptable passive method of “letting die” (i.e., taking off respirators) just as wrong as active physician-assisted suicide?

With the exception of Oregon, in the United States, our method of handling terminally ill patients is “letting die.” In the Netherlands, highly-regulated physician-assisted suicide is perfectly legal and they have serious concerns with the US’s method of handling these kinds of patients. In Germany, although euthanasia is illegal, PAS is legal but “unprofessional.” In other words, if a doctor assists a patient in a suicide, their medical associations will yank his license and keep him from practicing medicine, although there is no legal recourse. This is because of Germany’s tragic history with doctors’ experiments in World War II. If a non-medical person helps a terminally ill patient commit suicide, however, he is in violation of Germany’s Good Samaritan laws, which say that under certain conditions it is mandatory to give a person help—not harm. So what happens is that the assisting person must not be anywhere around when the patient dies, or he/she will risk legal prosecution. And so the patient dies alone.

Believe me, this only scratches the surface of all that could be said about this topic, but I believe I shall leave it at that for now.

It’s been a long week.

Double the Tears!

What a relief to be done with finals! I’m sure I cannot convey exactly how miserable the past month has been, but I am sure going to do my best. Have you noticed I haven’t been able to write much of anything this semester? Well, In the past month, I have had to complete the following:
· 2 twenty-minute presentations
· 1 five-minute presentation
· 35-page group project paper
· A 7-10 page paper on consumer-driven healthcare
· A 5-page paper on Enron
· A 5-page website analysis {www.revolutionhealth.com}
· A 5-page business analysis {Hospital Corporation of America}
· Access Project
· Writing up a Request for Proposal
· 2 scholarship essays
· 3 exams
· 1 quiz
· 4 finals

Additionally, I have had the following non-academic activities in the past month:
· Two out-of-state weddings
· Purchased a new(ish) car


And all this was complicated by a corrupted flash drive that lost ten days worth of work for me. Believe me, there have been times when I have wanted to burst out into spontaneous sobs! Sharon and I have spent more time in the library at school outside of class time in the past month than we have ever before in one semester. Friday nights, Saturdays—there we were.

When I told Mom this afternoon that I was finally finished with finals, she said, “Praise the Lord!! I am so finished with finals!!!”

Speaking of data loss… The girl who sits behind me came into class on the day we were to hand in our papers and started telling us about her awful night. She said she had almost completely written the whole thing (the night before it was due) when there was a massive power surge, and her computer was shut down. Unfortunately, she had not saved the document, and she had to start all over from scratch!! OUCH! She literally had to pull an all-nighter. She said around 4 am, she just started crying and crying. She never went to bed. She was really depressed about her paper. It’s just not as good the second time around.

I thought I was going to have to rewrite my website analysis when my flash drive corrupted itself. I had saved it, but for whatever reason, the folder it was in saw fit to deny me access based on corruption. I thought I was going to have to have a quick cry too.

I downloaded some software that said it could restore the files, but it wanted to charge me $50 to do so. I was about ready to do so because I surely couldn’t afford the time it would take to rewrite it. Then I all of a sudden had a brain tickle, and I thought I might’ve sent it myself via email the night I wrote it. I looked into my “From Me” folder, and LO and BEHOLD! There was that paper—sitting there in my Inbox.

The relief that flooded over me was immediate, and I began thanking the good Lord above. I don’t typically make a habit of sending my files to myself via email as a method of backing up, but for some reason, I saw fit to send that particular one. I think I might’ve had a guardian angel in action that night.

The guy that sits next to me in that same class had his own set of troubles with his paper. He is a computer guru and saves his files directly onto an external hard drive. So what are the chances of your brother’s girlfriend coming into your apartment and spilling Pepsi all over the hard drive? I don’t know, but that’s what happened, sure enough. And he had to rewrite his whole paper too.

So Emily, Adrian, and I had quite the time of sharing our stories of eGrief. I mean, writing a paper is bad enough the first time around—but twice??? That’s double the sweat and double the tears!

How long has it been since YOU backed up?

Cell Phone Innovation

I just have to write about an incident that happened today in my planning class. It has the potential of being a “had to have been there” story, so I am going to carefully lay out the background.

Ever since the VA Tech massacre, there’s been sort’ve an uneasiness around campus. Everyone talks about the “what ifs” and the “just imagines” and the “what would we dos?” One of my professors was especially shaken by it, and she’s made reference to it several times in her lectures.

Now she just happens to be the professor whose classes are extra tough, and many of the students dread sitting under her for an hour and twenty minutes twice a week. She is well aware of it and has made quite a few comments that she knows she is not our favorite professor. One-on-one she is a fine person—it’s just her teaching style (or lack thereof) that nearly drives us stark raving mad.

One of the good things about her is that she gives us these pass/fail quizzes. You pass if you can manage to get one more right than you get wrong. Then for every quiz you pass throughout the semester, she adds a point onto your final grade average. Students are very fond of that. The drawback, however, is that we do not get to keep the quizzes to study for the test. Instead, we are only allowed to look at them briefly, and then we must turn them back in before we leave the classroom. She usually has her graduate assistant prepare a Power Point presentation and she goes over the quiz that way, then passes out the quizzes, and then two to three minutes later, she picks them up again.

There are different methods students use to try to get the information down anyway. One of them is to frantically scribble down at least the ones you missed. That’s the only one I was aware of until last week. Apparently, some of them bring their cameras to class and take photos of the quiz. I have to admit I never thought of that. Then there was the method that I noticed today.

I was sitting at the back of the classroom listening to Dr. P when I noticed two guys at the front aiming their cell phones at the screen where the Power Point presentation was. Pretty innovative, I thought I poked Adam who was sitting beside me, and together we laughed at them. Dr. P was busy lecturing about why the question was “false” when we had all, as usual, said “true.” Then she all of a sudden noticed these two cell phones waving about, trying to get just the right angle.

She stopped short, took a step back, and asked, “What are you doing?”

One of the guys said, “Taking a picture of the screen.”

I held my breath because I would have assumed that that would be a Big Problem.

She asked, “Why?”

He said, “Because you don’t let us take our quizzes home to study.”

In my head I went, Eek! I knew it was coming then. But oddly enough, she only breathed a sigh of relief, and said in her thick Russian accent,

“Ohh. Well, just write it down. I thought you were taking a picture of ME and were going to use it to get me killed!”

We absolutely HOWLED. Her Russian sense of humor does not always match our American sense of humor, and so laughter in her classroom is a bit of a rarity. Whenever she does make a joke, she has to tell us that it is, in fact, a joke. “I’m keeding—I’m keeding,” she’ll say periodically.

But not so today. There was even one guy on the other side of the room who put new meaning to the phrase, shout with laughter. And there were a handful of us who had much difficulty getting over it. Amidst the howls of laughter, she gave a little shudder, and then just as seriously as anything said, “I am still so shaken up by that shooting! You know?”

As we all are.

But for that one moment, despite (or perhaps because of) all the misery we have gone through in that particular classroom, we felt a sense of camaraderie that we’ve never felt before. And we looked at her with perhaps a larger measure of grace and simply enjoyed the moment.

Eye to Eye

In one of my classes at the table in front of me sits a very tall fellow. When I say “tall,” I mean really, really tall—the kind of tall that requires him to duck when stepping through the doorway. He’s also in the lab for this class, and even though these are our first classes with him, it hasn't taken him long to make our acquaintances. As tall as he is, I had wondered that he isn’t playing basketball. As it turns out, he is an ex-basketball player, having transferred from Montana after a career-ending injury.

So anyway, at the end of our class on Thursday, he had something he hadn’t finished talking about, and I found myself effectively blocked off from leaving the classroom while he finished. He was talking abut our department head and was telling me some things about which he disagrees. “I just don’t see eye to eye with him,” he said.

With a brilliant flash of inspiration, I flopped my head back dramatically in order to gaze up at his 7+ ft. self and said, “Well, quite frankly, there aren’t many people who do see eye to eye with you.”

His guffaws echoing down the hallway confirmed my brilliance of the moment, and I am ashamed to admit that I have chuckled about it several times since.

Thumbs up!

I just have to give a shout-out to some of the things that I have recently found to make my life especially nice!

1. USPS APC. As seems to be the case a lot of the time more recently here, I needed to send some large envelopes with varying numbers of pages inside. Additionally, I needed a book of self-adhesive stamps to replenish my supply. So when I arrived at the post office in Bowling Green several days prior to Valentine's Day, I was dismayed to find half of the local county standing in line, waiting to send their Special Someone an I Love You package. The line was so long, in fact, that despite a very creative curl to the line, I couldn’t even step inside the glassed-in waiting area. I was instead left standing out by the post office boxes. I weighed my options. I saw the usual machines with postage booklets in them, but unfortunately, they don’t take any method of payment other than cash, and cash is something that I usually don’t have much of with me.

And then around the corner on the far end of the building, I saw a kiosk called APC (Automated Postal Center). Upon closer examination, I saw that this nifty little thing was digitized and not only took credit cards to buy postage stamps, but one can literally weigh items to mail right there and print any type of postage desired, including delivery confirmation and content insurance. AND this delightful little APC is accessible 24 hours a day—no more need to coincide my visits to the Post Office with their less-than-accommodating business hours!

I took care of my business in short order, completely bypassing that long line of sentimental package senders.

Way to go, USPS!

2. My Dana Wireless. When my Palm was stolen on the third day of class, I bought in its stead a Dana Wireless. I had been dissatisfied with the less than predictable connection of my wireless keyboard with my Palm, and so the Dana seemed like a good option to try. It is roughly the size of a piece of paper and is about ¾ in. thick. It looks like a small keyboard with a wide screen at the top. It weighs about 3 pounds. The Dana actually runs a Palm operating system, and therefore, it can run any program that the Palm can. The screen is not color, however, which means that it can hold a charge of up to 25 hours before it needs to be recharged. Just like a Palm, it can be synced with my computer, and all documents are compatible with Word and Excel. Furthermore, you are supposed to be able to surf the Internet and check email on it with its wireless feature. I haven’t taken the time to figure out that aspect of it yet.

The thing that made me decide to actually buy the Dana was having to sit in one of my classes for an hour and twenty minutes and having to write notes that entire time. I would average 4-5 pages of notes every time. Unlike a laptop, there is no boot time—it’s just on or off. Your typing is saved automatically, and so there is no loss of data. There are no cords or accessories. And it fits right into my backpack and doesn’t make the weight of it impossible to carry on my back! In short, it has become my best friend! I do a lot of writing in my major, and that will only intensify when/if I’m accepted into graduate school, so I believe this is the beginning of a long and sustainable relationship.

The first day I had my Dana in class, I became somewhat of a hero. I sit with my friends Natalie, Brad, Brandon, and Adrian. After explaining what it is and what it can do, class began. What took my classmates five minutes to write, I was done with in one. In fact, I could study for something else while everyone else wrote and wrote and wrote… We take a break midway through the class, and I found it quite comical when in unison Brad and Brandon turned around and asked, “Now where do you get that?” Natalie immediately declared that she would be willing to pay me for my notes. “You could make money off that thing,” she said.

Needless to say, I am indeed the absolute envy of my classmates wherever I go. And I become more and more fond of my Dana with every passing day. While it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles that a laptop does, it is literally this student’s best friend. I love my Dana so much, in fact, that (as I told Sharon) I am surprised I didn’t invent it myself!

3. Logmein.com. Logmein.com is an exceptionally great service. When Alvin was here for Christmas he introduced me to this little tool. This service is FREE, and it allows one to log into your home PC remotely. In other words, I can be on campus in the computer lab, and this service allows me to bring up my home desktop as if I were right there at home. The first day in one of my classes, our instructor told us that we would have to meet on alternate dates because of a scheduling discrepancy. I do not carry a planner with me, and because we were in a computer lab at the time, I just logged into my home PC to check my calendar on Outlook. Natalie and Justin were on either side of me, and Justin especially about “spazzed out.” He thought it was really cool. Which it is.

Alvin told me about it, I told Sharon about it, and Sharon told Sara about it. Good news travels quickly! We have also set Mom’s PC up on it so that we can deal with her “disappearing files” without having to move from our little underground nest.

So thumbs up to Logmein.com, to the Dana Wireless, and to the smart moves of the USPS!